About the Windows NT Workstation Resource Guide

This book includes the following chapters.

Part I, Windows NT Workstation Deployment

Chapter 1, "Deployment Strategy and Details," provides an overview of the steps involved in deploying Windows NT Workstation 4.0 throughout an organization. These steps include assembling the teams, choosing and testing the configurations of Windows NT Workstation to be used in an organization, and testing and performing the deployment process.

Chapter 2, "Customizing Setup," tells administrators how to provide their users with an unattended, customized installation. They can include applications, third-party device drivers, and even organization-specific Help files. End users can get right to work with an easy to use, powerful operating system, and all the applications, files, and tools they need.

Chapter 3, "Planning for a Mixed Environment," discusses the tools available to manage a network that includes both Windows NT Workstation and Windows 95. It also discusses factors to consider when deciding which operating system to install on which computers in an organization.

Chapter 4, "Deployment on Existing Client-Server Networks," discusses tools such as Systems Management Server that administrators can use to make the deployment of Windows NT Workstation 4.0 across an existing network even easier — or administrators, for users, and for help desk personnel.

Part II, About Windows NT

Chapter 5, "Windows NT Workstation Architecture," describes the architecture of Windows NT and its components. It also includes information on the improvements that were made in the architecture for Windows NT version 4.0.

Chapter 6, "Windows NT Workstation Security," provides a detailed description of the security architecture, which is pervasive throughout the operating system. It also gives detailed examples of how security can be implemented in Windows NT and provides practical suggestions for implementing different levels of security. The chapter concludes with a description of C2 security and the status of Windows NT in the certification process.

Chapter 7, "Printing," describes the Windows NT printing architecture and flow of control, including printing from all possible network clients. Descriptions of each printing component, including the spooler and print server services, are included, as well as a printing troubleshooting guide.

Chapter 8, "Fonts," presents technical information about the font technologies supported by Windows NT and focuses on TrueType fonts. This chapter also provides detailed information about printer fonts, installing fonts, and the expanded support for multiple character sets.

Part III, Optimizing Windows NT Workstation

Chapter 9, "The Art of Performance Monitoring," is an overview of the elements of performance monitoring on Windows NT.

Chapter 10, "About Performance Monitor," is a detailed description of Performance Monitor, the monitoring tool designed for Windows NT, from its most basic level to the subtle details of mastering the tool.

Chapter 11, "Performance Monitoring Tools," is a review of additional tools for monitoring the performance of Windows NT, including many of those that are included on the Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit CD.

Chapter 12, "Detecting Memory Bottlenecks," describes tests you can use to monitor your computer's physical memory and its role in the Windows NT virtual memory system. The chapter also includes tests to help you determine how efficiently your applications use the virtual memory system.

Chapter 13, "Detecting Processor Bottlenecks," guides you through the steps of recognizing a processor bottleneck, tracing it to its source, and eliminating it.

Chapter 14, "Detecting Disk Bottlenecks," describes different disk testing methods, and shows you how to measure the efficiency of your disks and your application's use of them. The chapter also includes a guide to testing and analyzing the performance of stripe sets using Performance Monitor logs included on the Windows NT Workstation Resource Kit CD.

Chapter 15, "Detecting Cache Bottlenecks," demonstrates how a memory shortage affects the Windows NT file system cache and shows you how to use cache activity indicators to analyze application I/O.

Chapter 16, "Monitoring Multiprocessor Computers," describes the performance issues unique to a symmetric multiprocessing system and how to monitor them.

Part IV, Reliability and Recoverability

Chapter 17, "Disk and File System Basics," describes the organization, contents, and purpose of the information on hard disks, and includes a description of disk hardware. Understanding the information in this chapter will help you to troubleshoot disk problems effectively and recover from them.

Chapter 18, "Choosing a File System," provides an overview of the capabilities and limitations of the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system and the Windows NT file system (NTFS). The previous chapter describes the structure of FAT and NTFS partitions from the perspective of how each file system organizes the data on the disk. This chapter focuses on the user aspects of each file system.

Chapter 19, "What Happens When You Start Your Computer," describes what happens at each step in the process when the computer starts successfully with Windows NT installed as one of the operating systems. It also describes dual-booting and triple-booting other operating systems, such as Windows 95 and MS-DOS®. It provides information on the contents of the Boot.ini file on x86-based computers and describes the firmware menus and how to use them on RISC-based computers.

Chapter 20, "Preparing for and Performing Recovery," describes what information you should back up and how to use those backups to recover from problems.

Chapter 21, "Troubleshooting Startup and Disk Problems," discusses what you can do to isolate startup problems, along with possible causes of and how to recover from disk problems.

Chapter 22, "Disk, File System, and Backup Utilities," describes each of the utilities mentioned in the previous chapters and how to use them.

Part V, Windows NT Registry

Chapter 23, "Overview of the Windows NT Registry," describes the Windows NT Registry, which is the configuration database for Windows NT.

Chapter 24, "Registry Editors and Registry Administration," describes the two Registry editors included with Windows NT, with an emphasis on protecting the Registry contents and using Registry editors to monitor and maintain the system configuration on local and remote computers.

Chapter 25, "Configuration Management and the Registry," provides examples of investigative and problem-solving techniques using the Registry and Registry editors.

Chapter 26, "Initialization Files and the Registry," describes how .ini files and other configuration files are used under Windows NT and how these values are stored in the Registry.

Part VI, Compatibility

Chapter 27, "Compatibility and Migration: Windows 3.x and Windows 95," provides a technical discussion of the Win16 subsystem for running Win16 and MS-DOS applications under Windows NT. The chapter also presents a discussion about running a mixed environment of Windows operating systems, and a detailed comparison of system architecture, reliability, security, and features between Windows NT and Windows 95.

Chapter 28, "OS/2 Compatibility," describes the implementation of the OS/2 subsystem, the application programming interface, and how to run OS/2 applications under Windows NT.

Chapter 29, "POSIX Compatibility," describes POSIX and its levels of conformance. The chapter also describes the implementation of the POSIX subsystem and how to run POSIX applications under Windows NT.

Part VII, Networking with Windows NT Workstation

Chapter 30, "Microsoft TCP/IP and Related Services for Windows NT," provides an overview of the networking services and TCP/IP transport used in Windows NT networking.

Chapter 31, "Microsoft TCP/IP Architecture," provides a general description of the architecture of TCP/IP in Windows NT.

Chapter 32, "Networking Name Resolution and Registration," describes the name resolution and registration services provided with Windows NT to enable locating and connecting to remote computers on an intranet or the Internet.

Chapter 33, "Using LMHOSTS Files," provides information about the LMHOSTS file that contains static mappings of "friendly" NetBIOS computer names to IP addresses to enable computers to locate resources on the Internet or on routed, TCP/IP intranets.

Chapter 34, "Managing User Work Environments," describes the following tools that you can use to manage user work environments: user profiles, System Policy Editor, logon scripts, and environment variables.

Chapter 35, "Using Windows NT Workstation on the Internet," introduces the components that enable a computer running Windows NT Workstation to access the Internet or to publish using Peer Web Services.

Part VIII, Windows NT Workstation Troubleshooting

Chapter 36, "General Troubleshooting," identifies tools that are available in Windows NT to help you troubleshoot problems. The chapter also contains information about troubleshooting hardware problems and how to use the information in the Registry to determine why services are not working correctly.

Chapter 37, "Monitoring Events," describes the three types of Windows NT events (application, system, and security) and the tool that you use to view them.

Chapter 38, "Windows NT Executive STOP Messages," discusses the various types of messages generated by the Windows NT Executive and categorizes them by their type and severity.

Chapter 39, "Windows NT Debugger," provides information on how to troubleshoot blue screens and Executive STOP messages by configuring the computer for a local or remote debugging session.

Part IX, Appendixes

Appendix A, "Answer Files and UDFs," is a reference for creating the answer files and associated Uniqueness Database Files (UDFs) that enable a completely unattended setup for each user in an organization.

Appendix B, "Security in a Software Development Environment," provides detailed information on protecting and auditing objects that are not normally accessed by anything other than the Windows NT operating system itself. This appendix is of use in a software development environment, or in situations where custom software shares the system with sensitive data. This appendix also describes special cases of auditing that might be of interest to administrators of high-level security installations.

Appendix C, "Port Reference for MS TCP/IP," describes the well-known and registered port assignments that are supported by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows NT.

Glossary in printed form for Windows NT.

Index to this Windows NT Workstation Resource Guide.